


Aftermath

by bessemerprocess



Series: Cooperation 'verse [6]
Category: Bones, Criminal Minds
Genre: Bar Night, Crossover, Drinking, Multi, trivia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-02-03
Updated: 2008-02-03
Packaged: 2017-10-04 14:05:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,261
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/31032
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bessemerprocess/pseuds/bessemerprocess
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The BAU unwinds after Limelight.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Aftermath

**Author's Note:**

> SPOILERS for CM- Limelight. Cooperation 'Verse.

It's a crowded night at the bar. Reid, Zack, Garcia and Prentiss are engaged in a trivia grudge match against a team who's matching t-shirts proclaim them the Triviapologists. Morgan is out dancing with an admiring crowd and JJ is wiping the floor with a bunch of frat boys at darts. Hotch has camped out at the bar next to Rossi, nursing a beer. He can hang out at the bar for as long as he wants, it's not like the hotel will care when he gets in. There's no baby to wake. Jack should grow up in a house, and Hotch isn't sure he could've lived there by himself anyway.

He shouldn't be wallowing in his beer, but it has been a bad week, a bad case, and Rossi would've headed out for a drink without any of them if they hadn't of tagged along. He was still standing on the outside of the team. And the team, well, if Hotch could still feel the Gideon-shaped hole, he couldn't really blame the rest of them for feeling it too. Rossi is a good man, but he isn't Gideon. He had to give orders, explain himself, whereas Gideon had gotten by with a tilt of the head and infrequent pats on the back. Gideon is gone, and Hotch is still trying to clean up after him.

"Leonard Nimoy!" Prentiss shouts above the music, drawing both Hotch and Rossi's attention. When the trivia master responds with a correct the BAU trivia team and their Jeffersonian ringer cheer and hug one another.

"Isn't it sort of cheating to have Reid on a trivia team?" Rossi asks over the din.

"I've seen them lose before," replies Hotch, "Not very often, but once in a while."

"I'd have to see that to believe it," responds Rossi with a smile. The first one Hotch has seen since Agent Morris had given her post-kidnapping press conference.

"Reid and Garcia are banned from playing in at least three bars that I know about, maybe more. If we were in town more often, they would have run out of places to play by now." Hotch looks fondly at the team as they continue to celebrate.

Rossi goes back to sipping his drink, he's still to caught up in the case to do much else, and Hotch wanders over to congratulate the victors. The mob moves to an empty table, the conquered Triviapologist interspersed with BAU. Hotch flags down a waitress and orders two more pitchers of beer. He can afford to buy drinks for grad students, and it will make his team happy. They all need a break.

Reid and Zack sit together, legs touching, even though Rossi doesn't officially know. He only doesn't officially know because it's not an argument Hotch wants to have. He doesn't say anything to them, because they're interrogating the sole male grad student, Tim, about the hyoid bone in Neanderthals, and Rossi is still sitting at the bar with another beer.

Prentiss has her own grad student admirers, Casey and Mattie, and she pours them both beers when the pitchers show up. Morgan plunks down at the table and Garcia leans her head on his shoulder as Prentice fills their glasses, too. Another glass for JJ, and then she shoves the pitcher across the table, so that Hotch can pour for the rest of them. As Hotch pours for his side of the table, he notices Rossi watching them, and wonders if he'll join them, but once he notices Hotch noticing he goes back to his own drink.

"I could..." Morgan trails off, following Hotch's line of sight.

"Let him be," he replies, and picks up his beer. It's the third one of the night, and he's been going easy. Rossi is drinking whiskey, and Hotch hasn't been counting. If he wants to join them, he will.

Morgan nods and then turns back to Garcia. He rarely lets her out of his sight these days, and Hotch is pretty sure he's still camping out on her couch when they're in town. What the arrangements are when Morgan isn't in town he doesn't know, but he's sure that they've worked out something.

Hotch sits back and sips his beer, listening to the conversations spinning around him. The road may still be bumpy, but his team is back on their feet, ready for the fight. Time will tell whether Rossi fully integrates or not.

"Hey, Hotch," calls JJ from across the table. "We're going to go down to Amy's and then home," her gesture includes Prentiss and her followers. It's both an invitation and status update. After Morris' kidnapping, everyone is going to update him on their location and plans for the foreseeable future. It's not that he doesn't trust two armed federal agents to get three grad students and themselves ice cream and then home safety, it's just paranoia.

"Sure," he nods, "I'm going to stick around for a while." He watches as they gather jackets and finish off beers, trying not to consider who is going to end up where by the end of the night. JJ won't head home with Prentiss tonight, but he gives Emily even chances that it'll happen before the end of the year. If they're all still alive.

"We're going to head out, too, Hotch," says Morgan, as Garcia slips on a jacket. Soon Hotch is alone at the table, so he settles up the tab and moves back to the bar next to Rossi.

"They all went home?" Rossi asks, only slurring a bit.

Hotch nods. "Well, I think there may have been ice cream involved, but yes, we're the only ones left." Hotch stands as Rossi slugs back the last of his drink, "Let's go flag down a cab."

Rossi nods, looking tired and drunker than he actually is. Hotch has performed this service for Gideon hundreds of times. It's not the same with Rossi. Hotch gets him into the cab with out a problem: Gideon could get damn belligerent if he didn't think he was ready to go and Hotch was the only one left. The cab ride is in the wrong direction from Hotch's hotel, but no one is traveling home by themselves tonight.

Rossi isn't a man of many words, and Hotch doesn't want to be the one to start a conversation, so the cab ride is mostly silent. When they get to Rossi's apartment, Hotch makes sure he makes it inside and locks the door behind him before returning to the cab. If it had been Gideon… but Hotch tries not to think about it.

The cab driver waits until they're back on the road, "Tough night?"

"Tough week," responds Hotch, wondering how bad it really must have been for the cabbie to notice.

"Tell me about," said the cabbie, sounding exasperated and tells Hotch about his wife, his son, his dogs and all the little slights an average man deals with in a week. Hotch doesn't mention that his week involved a handful of dead women and a kidnapped FBI agent. Instead, he leans back against the seat and lets the noise of the traffic and the cabbie's voice wash over him. For a moment, nothing pushes down on him: no responsibility, no stress, no lingering doubts. Then the cab jerks to a stop outside his hotel, and the moment of peace is gone. He pays the cabbie and reminds himself that tomorrow he will go to work again and together, his team will save lives. It has to be enough.


End file.
